The lawyer for a man charged with impaired driving after a dump truck slammed into the Burlington Skyway last month says his client plans to plead not guilty.

David Locke says his client, Sukhvinder Singh Rai, 34, is very upset about this "whole unfortunate situation."

"Right now, just start with the assumption that he’s pleading not guilty," Locke told reporters outside a Hamilton courthouse Friday morning.

Rai faces impaired driving charges in connection with the collision. He has been released from custody and was issued a 90-day license suspension.

Police say the dump truck involved in the collision was travelling with its bucket raised when it crashed into a portion of the bridge's scaffolding in a construction zone on July 31. The driver suffered minor injuries and the bridge sustained extensive damage.

The Toronto-bound QEW lanes of the Skyway were closed for the entire August long weekend as crews worked to remove the smashed truck from the bridge so that engineers could assess the scope of the damage.

Crews continue to repair the bridge. A Ministry of Transportation Ontario (MTO) official told CTV Toronto that a steel beam that measures approximately four lanes of the Skyway will be required to repair the bridge. Officials have not set a date for when that work will begin but say it will likely result in lane closures.

Rai is scheduled to make his next court appearance on Oct. 3. The MTO says if negligence is proven in court, it will seek a cost-recovery fee to cover part of the bridge's repair bill.

With a report from CTV Toronto’s John Musselman